Wordclock: Heralds
Cryo Chamber
On Heralds, Pedro Pimentel aka Wordclock exchanges the austere, sometimes chilly electronic style of some of his Cryo Chamber brethren for an electro-acoustic sound heavily rooted in acoustic sonorities and strongly suggestive of centuries-old European locales. To that end Pimentel benefits greatly from the contributions of cellist Amund Ulvestad (who previously appeared on the second Wordclock album Self Destruction Themes), Nuno Craveiro on the Scandinavian instrument Nyckelharpa, and Phonothek member George Shmanauri on trumpet. Pimentel himself is credited with writing and mixing the material, and field recordings he collected and acoustic instruments he recorded in Porto, London, and Berlin also form a central part of the production design.
The result is a deeply atmospheric collection sure to appeal to fans of not only dark ambient but also jazz noir and neo-classical. Dreamlike and hallucinatory in character, Pimentel's painterly soundscapes ooze a gothic quality that is if not necessarily horrific certainly macabre. Images of crumbling architecture and haunted cities form as the gloomy details of Pimentel's vision assert themselves.
The album's noirish jazz stylings are especially pronounced during “Bell Ringing III” when Shamanauri drapes his bleating horn across a misty base of minimal piano, brushed drums, and creaking violins. One could be forgiven for thinking Pimentel's indulging a rather perverse sense of humour in titling one piece “Beatrice's Euphoria” when its tone is more malignant than celebratory.
The music is, however, inarguably effective at evoking a very particular kind of imagery. With the groan of Ulvestad's cello drifting through field recordings-drenched moodscapes, it's easy for the listener to visualize 18th-century European cities abandoned by inhabitants desperate to avoid spreading plagues threatening to ravage adults and children alike. That said, Heralds is ultimately a more soothing than nerve-frazzling listen, even if disturbing undercurrents are present beneath the music's relatively placid surface.March 2018